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Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427 - Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852 by Various
page 48 of 68 (70%)
that personage.

'Hume, Joseph, a Radical Reformer, whose history adds another memorable
example of perseverance raising its possessor from a humble station to
distinction. He was born at Montrose, in the year 1777. While he was
still young, his father, the master of a small trading-vessel of that
port, died, leaving his widow to bring up a numerous family. Mrs Hume,
it is related, maintained herself and her children by means of a small
earthenware business, and placed Joseph in a school of the town, where
he received an education which included instruction in the elements of
Latin. With such scanty stores of knowledge, he was apprenticed to a
surgeon of Montrose, with whom he served three years. Having attended
the prescribed lectures to the medical classes in the university of
Edinburgh, he was admitted, in 1796, a member of the College of Surgeons
in that city. India was at that time a favourite, and, indeed, almost
the only field for the young who had no other fortune than their talents
and enterprise. To India, accordingly, Mr Hume went, and entered as a
surgeon the naval service of the East India Company. He had not been
there three years, before he was placed on the medical establishment of
Bengal. Here, while increasing his professional reputation, he had the
opportunity of watching the whole operation of the machinery of the
Company's service. His quick eye soon detected the deficiencies of the
greater number of the Company's servants in command of the native
language, an acquirement so valuable in possessions such as ours. He
determined to acquire a knowledge of the dialects of India, not doubting
that a sphere of larger utility and greater emolument would open before
his efforts. The Mahratta war breaking out in 1803, Mr Hume was attached
to Major-general Powell's division, and accompanied it on its march from
Allahabad into Bundelcund. The want of interpreters was now felt, as
Hume had expected, and the commander was glad to find among his surgeons
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